PIRATES rider Darcy Ward showed deadly form in the Scandinavian Grand Prix to leapfrog stricken Tomasz Gollob into eighth place in the GP standings.

Stand-in Poole skipper Ward, who missed four GP meetings during his debut season through injury, secured four race wins and 15 points to put himself in pole position for automatic entry to next year’s series.

World number four Gollob suffered a smash with championship challenging Brit Tai Woffinden in heat two of the Stockholm showdown, an incident that saw the Pole taken to hospital.

Ward now holds a four-point cushion over Gollob, who will undergo an MRI scan to assess the extent of his injuries, ahead of the final meeting in Torun in a fortnight’s time.

Poole’s Aussie star reached the semi-finals of the Rockklassiker GP with a near unblemished record of four wins and one second place from his five heats.

But the penultimate race proved a bridge too far for the 21-year-old who finished third behind Jaroslaw Hampel and Matej Zagar in his quest for a podium place.

Meanwhile, fellow Pirate Greg Hancock kept alive his hopes of a medal in this year’s series by reaching the final.

Veteran Hancock, whose European base is in Sweden, won three races before finishing second behind winner Niels-Kristian Iversen in his semi-final.

The American speedway legend missed out on a fairytale finish in what he described as his “second home” when he brought up the rear in the final, but his 13-point haul keeps him on the coat-tails of a top three finish.

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS: 1 Tai Woffinden 141, 2 Jaroslaw Hampel 125, 3 Niels-Kristian Iversen 119, 4 Emil Sayfutdinov 114, 5 Nicki Pedersen 113, 6 Greg Hancock 111, 7 Matej Zagar 107, 8 Darcy Ward 93, 9 Tomasz Gollob 89, 10 Chris Holder 82, 11 Fredrik Lindgren 81, 12 Krzysztof Kasprzak 80, 13 Andreas Jonsson 59, 14 Martin Vaculik 56, 15 Antonio Lindback 45, 16 Leon Madsen 23, 17 Ales Dryml 16, 18 Andzejs Lebedevs 9, 19 Chris Harris 7, 20 Krzysztof Buczkowski 6, 21 Linus Sundstrom 6, 22 Bartosz Zmarzlik 6, 23 Michael Jepsen Jensen 6, 24 Fredrik Engman 4, 25 Aleksandr Conda 3, 26 Oliver Berntzon 3, 27 Josef Franc 2, 28 Peter Kildemand 2, 29 Kenni Larsen 2, 30 Nicolas Covatti 2, 31 Kim Nilsson 2, 32 Jason Bunyan 1, 33 Craig Cook 1, 34 Josh Auty 1.

ROCKKLASSIKER SCANDINAVIAN SGP SCORES: 1 Niels-Kristian Iversen 18, 2 Matej Zagar 15, 3 Jaroslaw Hampel 13, 4 Greg Hancock 13, 5 Darcy Ward 15, 6 Krzysztof Kasprzak 10, 7 Andreas Jonsson 10, 8 Leon Madsen 9, 9 Fredrik Lindgren 8, 10 Tai Woffinden 7, 11 Nicki Pedersen 5, 12 Fredrik Engman 4, 13 Antonio Lindback 3, 14 Ales Dryml 3, 15 Oliver Berntzon 3, 16 Kim Nilsson 2, 17 Martin Vaculik 0, 18 Tomasz Gollob 0.